MY KETO JOURNEY
I started my keto lifestyle in April of 2019 and haven’t looked back.
So many of my clients have asked me over the years about my experience and for resources of the materials and products I’ve used, so I decided to blog them for easy sharing. I STRONGLY recommend reading a book (or several) on Keto before jumping in. You can’t fully comprehend how the diet works and how to eat if you don’t educate yourself on the science behind it first. A lot of people think that using ‘keto recipes’ gets them into a ketogenic lifestyle, but there’s so much more to it than that.
Books that I have read and enjoyed are listed below.
KETO CLARITY by Jimmy Moore
Keto by Maria Emmerich
(The author of this book is a huge spokesperson for the Keto diet, she has many other amazing books and resources for the lifestyle, I recommend following her on social media as well.)
Keto Zone Diet by Dr Colbert
The Complete Guide to Fasting by Dr Jason Fung
And since over 50% of Americans are now either pre diabetic or type 2 diabetic (a number that has quadrupled since the 1980’s when they removed fats from our diets and increased our carbohydrates and sugars) I highly recommend this book by Dr Fung. Type 2 Diabetes is a DIETARY disease that is overwhelming our country, it is controlled by what we put in our mouth.
I know someone personally that was diagnosed recently and had an A1 C of 11.3 (normal is under 5.5) and within 3 months of a keto diet and not medications got his A1 C to 6.1). In one year, his Triglycerides went from 347 to 71, and that is the OPPOSITE of what most people think will happen when you start a high fat (low sugar low carb) diet.
This book on cholesterol was mind blowing, I recommend reading it before you even consider taking a prescribed statin!
CHOLESTEROL CLARITY by Jimmy Moore (he also has a great pod cast titled Liv'n la vida low carb)
Also read this for type II Diabetes The Diabetes Code by Dr Jason Fung (cure yourself with diet, don’t mask it with pills!)
FOOD RESOURCES
The bread and bagels that I order from Sola Sweets in FL is hands down my favorite of any I’ve tried. No artificial ingredients, a large variety of options, they can’t be beat. The sesame seed and everything bagels I use for pizza bread as well as my cheeseburger buns. The blueberry bagels are delicious and I heap them high with cream cheese (always getting those fats in!). We love all of their breads too, and at 2 net carbs its a win! Sola
LEWIS BAKE SHOP has awesome low carb breads and buns (we find it locally at our Piggly Wiggly and some Krogers stock it)
The flatbreads I use are from a company called Cut da Carb in CA. I cut these up and make chips for my dips, I have several flatbread recipes I’ve made with them as well as desserts. They have an Instagram page I follow, people daily post their own creations with these flatbreads and it’s incredible the things they come up with! Cut Da Carb
My husband loves the soda from Zevia. We get this from our local Healthy Life Market and some flavors are sold at Kroger. All natural sweeteners, it’s a great fizzy substitute for all of your favorite soft drinks! Zevia
He also likes the chocolate and cinnamon flavored cereal from Catalina Crunch. Their chocolate cookies (Oreos knockoff) are my favorite! Catalina Crunch
My favorite sweetener for our unsweet tea is the liquid monk fruit drops by Lakanto (not all sweeter brands are created equal! I’ve tried other brands that I don’t care for as much, they tend to have a bitter unatural aftertaste) but this brand provides me with all forms of sweetners that I love. I use their powdered, granulated, brown and baking sweetness for all of my recipes. I can find this in the Healthy Life Market as well as Kroger or online. Lakanto
ALLULOSE is all I use in my homemade ice cream recipe, unlike monk fruit and stevia, it will not harden when frozen (no more waiting 15 minutes for ice cream to soften before you eat it!) I also prefer using allulose over the monk fruit/erythritol blends, erythritol although natural has a cooling aftertaste that I don’t prefer. For the brown sugar sweeteners I love Wholesome Yum
The best maple syrup replacement I’ve found is by a brand called Wholesome Yum (not to be confused with the brand ‘Wholesome’). While the Lakanto brand is good, this one tastes the most like maple syrup to me. Again, no artificial sweetners. The woman that created this brand also has delicious sweetners as well as great recipe resources. I sign up for her emails to stay updated. Wholesome Yum
Here are some other favorites I’ve discovered along the way
In a jamb and need a quick meal replacement, I love THINK KETO BARS PEANUT BUTTER (usually local Kroger)
STRAWBERRY JAM (Choc Zero) (their grape and raspberry jam are also excellent)
CHEESE PUFFS (Schoolyard snacks)
COOKIES (Catalina Crunch) I use these for snacks as well as crusts for pies/cheesecakes
CARBQUICK (I find this @ Wal-Mart, makes great pizza crust and all other flour substitutes)
LOUISIANNA FRIED CHICKEN COATING and PORQ panko (also find these @ Wal-Mart)
I also love the free app Carb Manager. It is a very simple way to track carbs as well as visual graphs that help tremendously when learning how many fats you need per meal! CARB MANAGER
I’ll be updating and adding to this blog as I think of things to add, so feel free to check back in for new content!
Erica
